I don't care at all about what's happening in Indiana.

And that's no April Fool's joke.

Why? Because it doesn't matter.

"How dare you, Chad! It DOES matter! The very foundation of our religious freedom is at stake!!"

No, it's not.

"If we don't take a stand NOW the church will be destroyed!"

No, it won't.

"We have to stand and fight!"

No, we don't.

In his article, A Letter to Christians In Indiana, From Jesus, John Pavlovitz writes what he thought a letter would look like - from Jesus, to Christians in Indiana. It had nuggets that I really believe Jesus would say, such as:

This isn’t what I had planned. This wasn’t the Church I set the table for. It wasn’t the dream I had for you, when I spoke in those parables about the Kingdom; about my Kingdom.

And this:

My kindness, my goodness, my forgiveness; you were created to be the method of transportation for all of it.You were made to deliver the greatest good news to a world so desperate for it. This wild, extravagant, world-altering love I have for my people, was intended to travel from my aching heart, through your trembling hands, to my hurting people. This has always been your calling. It has always been your purpose. It still is. This very second it is.

And this.

Do you really think that the grandstanding and the insult-slinging and the side-choosing, that it feels like me? Do you truly believe that the result of your labors here in these days, is a Church that clearly perpetuates my character in the world? Is this the Gospel I entrusted you with? To be honest with you, I simply don’t see it. How did you drift so far from the mission? How did you become so angry, so combative, so petty, so arrogant, so entitled?

I don't know what the law does or does not say. I don't know what the intention behind the lawmaker's hearts was. But I do know one thing - for us as Christians to get torn up about this isn't what Jesus intended.

My Marine instinct says to fight. My Jesus says to love.

Yes, the church may be on a one-way track for a collision with the law and the liberals, but that doesn't concern me. My job is to preach and teach the Gospel to every creature. My job is to show the love of Jesus to everyone I know. My job is to make sure that I can encourage others to do so as well.

So if you find yourself getting really bent out of shape about all this, remember two things: 1) the media will do anything to stir up a dramatic story, and 2) this isn't what Jesus wants us to focus on.

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Autism is very near and dear to my heart because my little boy Jacob was diagnosed in December 2013 as being on the Autism Spectrum. 

I love my little boy and we've had some difficulties, but nothing we can't overcome, and nothing Jacob himself couldn't overcome with our help. We are working with him every day to better develop his speech and social skills. 

If it weren't for Jacob's diagnosis, I may have never looked for movies like Temple Grandin. 

Temple Grandin is the title of a movie about a real person by the same name. Temple was a woman who had Autism, but because of her mother's encouragement and steadfastness, Temple excelled in prep school and in college. She is now responsible for developing new methods in the 1970's and 80's on how cattle were handled on big cattle farms. 

At one point in the movie when Temple seems to have a lot of difficulty, her prep school professor who used to work for NASA and now teaches science, told her something very simple and very profound. Temple was frustrated and indicating that she was too different from everyone else and couldn't cope with the stresses of being at school. 

That's when her professor simply said, "You're different. Not less."

We as Christians in this world today are many times viewed as less because of what and who we believe in. We are battered by a world that laughs at us and says that the Christian life is a joke, and that there is no God. We know better. 

We are different, but most definitely not less. 

And on the flip side, we should not look at the people in the world as less. We should see every person in our lives as a soul that can be won for Christ, not look down on them because they don't prescribe to our way of thinking. 

We as Christians are called to be different. But not less. 

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. - 1 Peter 2.9

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.   - Matthew 6.34

As a conservative Christian, I stopped worrying about things I could not control a long time ago. I at least try not to get bent out of shape over politics, the path our country is on, and other matters that, well, don't matter. 

It's not exactly Ecclesiastes or a epiphany I'm having here, but it is a minor realization. And that realization is: that none of that stuff matters. 

So what if our nation now is openly defiant against God in a myriad of ways? God will only allow this to go on for so long, and when He decided it's time for this nation to no longer exist because of it's wickedness, then we won't have to worry about any of this. 

We don't even need to worry about who's in office or what he/she is doing. The President does not have authority over our lives, God does. 

"The government is taking away our rights!" you say. "The government is going against God!" you say. All right, that may be so. Are YOU doing what God says? Are YOU a faithful servant of His? Don't worry about what everyone else is doing - worry about what you're doing. 

Quit being silly about the direction of our country. Worry about yourself, your family, and serving God in every capacity that you can. You can't control what anyone else says or does against God, but you can control you. God has this country on the path that He has deemed, whether that's to destruction or prosperity, we cannot know. 

Quit being silly about worship. Today I saw this. This is WORSHIP to the Almighty God who created us and everything around us, and some people want to turn it into Prom Night. And if that's not enough, we're treating worship to God like it's a hobby. Like we will go and participate if it fits in our schedule. God's Son didn't die on the cross for us to miss worship because of a ballgame or because it's inconvenient to our schedule. 

Just quit being silly, period. Quit complaining so much. Quit criticizing everything the preacher says or the youth minister does - they're people and fellow Christians too. Quit acting holy on Sundays and acting anything but on Saturday night. Quit worrying about things you can't control. 

Quit being a discourager and be an encourager. Quit complaining and start solving. Act holy and BE holy, just as God has intended us to. 

And stop worrying so much. God will take care of us if we trust in Him. 

I am a bit tired of the constant chorus from evangelicals talking about how we have wavered from being a “Christian nation” and that we need to get the nation back to “founding principles.” Look, we need to lead people to Jesus and to be participants of the kingdom regardless of national affinities.

I would have wrote out my thoughts on this as well, only Robbie said it better. 

Euthymius says only men with a beard can enter his Judean Desert monastery, not boys "with female faces."

Classic stuff (and a history lesson) from Ted Olsen over at Christianity Today.